Random thoughts on almost anything and everything, with an emphasis on defense, intelligence, politics and national security matters..providing insight for the non-cleared world since 2005.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Margin of Victory

By a 58-40 vote, the U.S. Senate voted today to remove funding for additional F-22 stealth fighters from a $680 billion defense bill. President Obama had threatened to veto the measure if it contained more money to sustain F-22 production.

Our latest column for Examiner.com looks at the impact of that decision. We're reminded that key weapons programs of the past often survived by narrow Congressional majorities, and become indispensible in combat (the B-17 and B-29 come to mind). In light of the F-22 vote, we can only hope that today's legislative majority (19 votes) doesn't provide a future margin of defeat.

3 comments:

Nate has a way of getting to the guts of a story. I like it and await new articles by him.

But it saddens me that there are so many spelling and grammar mistakes in his articles. It is a big distraction for me and I am not an English major nor a college grad.

That said, this article is just a taste of what politics, greed and ignorance can do regarding the way taxpayer's money is spent in the U.S. Defense Dept.

I'm one of those American Citizens that has tried to keep up with the ways and means that our money is spent. I can say that I watch our defense projects more than most other Americans and I am pissed off at how much money is wasted and the time to get a usable product to our Military.

In some cases (way too many) after billions have been spent....

THERE IS NO PRODUCT DELIVERED.

Or if there is, it is defective upon arrival with promises to make it work for more money...on and on.

It is enough to make you want to just do away with it all and start over.